Letters to the Editor
-
Anonymous
You really are an idiot. I never served in the USMC nor have I ever claimed to. Actually, anybody is entitled to contact the USMC and find out if a person actually did serve. The USMC will not give out any personal information, but will confirm or deny service.
Resumes and job applications are checked out that way daily. Many militia wannabe idiots and right wing bozos know Marines and military lingo, they masturbate to Soldier of Fortune and it means nothing. Wide Stance G never served a day, you can bet your life on it.
-
Calling a Colonel a liar?
You are an idiot, dude. And you've worn out your welcome with half truths and spin from obviously interested parties.
And then that. Your last question. I said that nothing in the link I sent contradicts what the FORMER Marine said. And what if I HAD indeed called him a liar? Are Marines incapable of lying? What parallel universe do you live in?
Feel free to offer your own analysis - I know you have nothing better to do. Just can't guarantee that I'll be coming back to read it.
-
Anonymous@2:42
"Which is why he has no Purple Heart. A grenade fell off his web gear, and rear-office-pogue that he was, he bent over to pick it up instead of knowing (and hearing) that that meant the spoon had popped off. A combat veteran knows that very distinct metallic pop and hiss of a spoon coming off a live grenade."
Is the wikipedia version of events completely off base then?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Cleland
'On April 8, with a month left in his tour, Cleland was ordered to set up a radio relay station on a nearby hill. A helicopter flew him and two soldiers to the treeless top of Hill 471, east of Khe Sanh. Cleland knew some of the soldiers camped there from Operation Pegasus. He told the pilot he was going to stay a while. Maybe have a few beers with friends.
When the helicopter landed, Cleland jumped out, followed by the two soldiers. They ducked beneath the rotors and turned to watch the liftoff. Cleland reached down to pick up the grenade he believed had popped off his flak jacket. The blast slammed him backward, shredding both his legs and one arm. He was 25 years old...
David Lloyd was a gung-ho, 19-year-old enlisted Marine, son of a Baltimore ship worker, who went to Vietnam because he "wanted to kill Communists."
On April 8, 1968, he was in a mortar pit on a hill near Khe Sanh when he heard an explosion. Shrapnel bounced off his flak jacket. He ran to the injured officer, a man named Max Cleland. 'Hold on there, captain,' Lloyd told Cleland. 'The chopper will be here in a minute.'
Lloyd took off his web belt and tied it around one of Cleland's shredded legs. When the medics arrived, he left to help another injured soldier — one of the two who had gotten off a helicopter with Cleland.
That soldier was crying. 'It was mine,' he said, 'it was my grenade.'
According to Lloyd, the private had failed to take the extra precaution that experienced soldiers did when they grabbed M-26 grenades from the ammo box: bend the pins, or tape them in place, so they couldn't accidentally dislodge. This soldier had a flak jacket full of grenades with treacherously straight pins, Lloyd says. "He was a walking death trap."'
-
But what about
the Senior Monthly?
-
"Is the wikipedia version of events completely off base then?"
Not at all. So it was another guy's grenade. A combat veteran, seeing a grenade on the ground, does not bend over to pick it up. He yells "GRENADE" and jumps head-first as far away from it as he can, covering his balls with one hand and the back of his neck with the other.
-
Again,
what of the Senior Monthly?
-
Re: Is the wikipedia version of events completely off base then?
"Which is why he has no Purple Heart. A grenade fell off his web gear, and rear-office-pogue that he was, he bent over to pick it up instead of knowing (and hearing) that that meant the spoon had popped off. A combat veteran knows that very distinct metallic pop and hiss of a spoon coming off a live grenade."
"Not at all. So it was another guy's grenade. A combat veteran, seeing a grenade on the ground, does not bend over to pick it up. He yells "GRENADE" and jumps head-first as far away from it as he can, covering his balls with one hand and the back of his neck with the other."
Not having been with Cleland when he jumped off a helicopter outside Khe Sanh, I won't conjecture as to what state of mind or sequence of events might have led to his injuries. But you characterized him as a "rear office pogue", and seem certain that the sound of the spoon popping off was audible over the helicopter.
This seems terribly presumptuous and viciously spirited. I mean, the guy wasn't fragged while sitting behind a desk in Da Nang. Dislike his politics all you want but give him his due respect. Many veterans come back with injuries from accidents and friendly fire due to incidents that occur in combat zones. I hope you don't hold vets returning from Iraq with such injuries in the same contempt.
-
"Dislike his politics all you want but give him his due respect."
He gets all my respect. He served in uniform in country. Nuff said. And "rear office pogue" was a bit harsh if you're not used to GI joshing. Sorry.
Cleland did way more than a lot of guys, including Bush.
-
The Truth is a Long Distance Runner
I don't know how to write Dan Rather a fan letter, so I'm posting here, hoping he will read it.
I grew up watching Dan all the way back in the 1960s. He is the kind of Texan that a person could be so proud of way back in the day. While no one is 100 percent perfect, he is the nearest thing to it in a newsman I have ever seen in my life.
Every night I watch the news, I miss Dan. Only recently, I've given up and started watching NBC for the first time since 1960.
Maybe the Bushies will shout him down like they did every other book writer who was critical of this administration. But in the long scope of history, remember what that Warren Commission lawyers said: "The truth is a long distance runner." I think most of us knew Dan was right all that week that the story ran, but Salon.com was the only news organization that I know of that backed him up.
I can no longer be loyal to CBS. But I can be loyal to Salon and to Olbermann.